The cord on the 45w power brick for my iBook G4 has frayed and is no longer usable. I am considering removing the jack from the iBook cord and splicing it onto a 45w yo-yo-style cord (originally used with a 1400) that I have. Are there any issues associated with this of which I should be aware? I want to resolve my problem, but do not want to break my computer in the process, of course.
View 1 RepliesMy iBook G4 crashed on me one night, and the only way I could turn it on again was to unplug the power cord from my computer, turn it over, remove the battery, put the battery back in, plug the cord back into the computer, hold down the start button, and it would restart. Although, when it restarted, the fan would go on first, and then the computer would make the normal start sound. Some times the finder would be on the screen after I restarted it displaying a quick link icon of the hard drive. So after a few weeks, it did it again, then a few days, and then it got to the point where I had to keep my computer in the same position otherwise it might shut down.
Now, if the power cord is green everything is fine, but if I move my computer and bump the cord into the wrong place it turns from green to bright red, makes an evil buzzing sound, and in three seconds the computer shuts off and I have to restart by using the method above. If or when the power cord goes bright red I do have 3 seconds to pull out the cord before it shuts down. I then sleep the computer, put the cord back into the computer, and move the cord around until it is green again.
I took my computer to a mac genius, and when he looked at the crash report he said it was frequent, but not caused by the battery and couldn't tell me what was the exact problem. I bought a brand new power cord, but I still couldn't move the computer around to much or it would shut down.
1.) Has anyone ever heard of this happening? And if so, what causes it to be so touchy?
2.) What can I do to fix it myself?
3.) If I send it in, will they be able to fix it so that it is perfect again without having to spend more than the money assessed?
I would like to try to have it fixed. At this juncture, my only option is to send it in for $280 and hope they can fix the problem that no one seems to know what is the exact problem, or even where the problem stems from. I should add here that the battery is fully charged, and the report says it can hold about 1 hour of life, although it's more like 30 minutes, and then without warning to plug in or risk shutting down (like it used to give me) it will shut down.
I've been lurking for the last 12 months but haven't posted until now. Does anyone know if it's possible to purchase a new PCB and lead for the power input. My youngest kid pulled my mac off the sofa and it landed right on the input which knackered up the lead forcing me to buy a cheap chinese job. I've taken the cover off and pulled out the small PCB to inspect it and it did have a cracked solder. I fixed that but the connection is still very fussy, I can't move the mac much or it will switch off (dead battery too). While I'd love to go out and buy a brand new macbook I simply can't afford it right now so patching up this one is my only choice. It needs ram, new battery, proper lead and power supply PCB. All easy to find except the PCB.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI'm looking to find a new power cord for my TC. On Amazon they have this: [URL] but the fact that it's a black cable would really bother me. It looks like a pretty basic 2-pin power adapter, but I'm not really sure where I could fine a while one at online.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI've recently acquired a (rather old) PowerBook g3 (Lombard if you are wondering). However, I have by yet acquired a power cord for said notebook.
The laptop was free, but the power cord will apparently not be so I expensive. Basically PowerBook will be used for writing papers, other non-Internet stuff I need to do this year (senior in high school). Right now I am using my iPod touch as my primary computer. My question is, should I go ahead and just pay the money for a power cord or should I just suck it up and wait until may-isu when I get a new notebook? Obviously I'd like to avoid paying a lot but would the money for a new cord be worth it? If not I could always use google docs for papers when I'm not at the house, how advantageous would having an actual notebook be
My girlfriends 1.07ghz g4 Ibook's power cord broke, and we are looking for a replacement she will have a new macbook in about a month but I still want to use the ibook for a few things. I've noticed that some descriptions on ebay say that this particular book is not compatible with the cords that most of the others have. Was wondering if anyone knew which one works for sure, and maybe for the cheapest
View 2 Replies View RelatedAfter spending a lot of time troubleshooting and researching to figure out what's wrong with my ibook I concluded to about 90% certainty that I need to replace the DC-in board. I ordered and received a replacement - and the necessary screwdrivers, etc - from ifixit, only now I find myself just staring at the laptop like I'm about to perform open heart surgery.
My questions are:
Is doing this myself high risk for someone who has never so much as seen the inside of a computer?
Roughly how long should this take me to do? I don't want to start it without some sense of the time commitment involved because I'd rather do it all in one sitting.
And lastly, from what I've seen in guides/tutorials it looks as though there's some prying involved in removing the casing and I'm wondering just how much finesse is required in closing it back up. Does it snap back in easily?
I went through all the steps to change the optical drive on an old 500 MHz iBook G3, but am unable to attach the bottom case. The problem is the two long (20mm) screws near the back of the computer -- each apparently has to insert into something that looks like a gold-colored nut with serrated edges, like gears, otherwise the screws just rotate in place and don't "lock up." I'll attach a picture, but my only digital camera until I borrow one from a friend is my cell phone, so the pic won't be too good. The gold pieces fell out during the disassembly process and I can't figure out where they now go.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have a G3 IBook 500 mhz with 2 usb ports. The clock and date don't stay set so I think I need to replace the back up battery. I am wondering how difficult this is to do on it. On my G3 Powerbook it was fairly simple.
View 4 Replies View RelatedAbout a week ago I received my new battery due to the recall. The last few days my power book has been great when I open my power book today it will not wake up. So i figured I would plug it in. The light stays green, does not change to orange, and still continues not to wake up. Even taking the battery out and trying to turn it doesn't work. Power cord stays green then as well.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI was attempting to replace the hard drive in my eMac, but for instructions I HAD to follow some darn take-apart guide that said pull out the connection for the power button cord from the logic board. I didn't know that it was SOLDERED in there, and now I can't complete putting my eMac back together without doing so.
Can this be fixed without having to send it to Apple? Does it HAVE to inolve soldering, or is there an alternative? Is there a way I can temporary have my eMac power on until I get the connector fixed?
I have an old iBook G4 with a dead logic board, everything works fine for about 10-15 minutes, then the display stops responding. The hard drive continues to spin, processor still chugs, etc. I'm going to leave it running iTunes in a few minutes and when it freezes, hit the space bar to see if the actual machine still responds. (In which case I would be sure that it's the video card, or some cable in that area.)
My question: I'm looking on eBay for replacement logic boards, and I'm wondering how specific/universal they are. Obviously, it needs to come from a 14" iBook, but does it matter what processor speed? Eg. Will a board from a 1.2GHz iBook work? I have the iFixIt guide, and I'm not too worried about wrecking the thing, so it's just a matter of making sure I get the right part. (How about this one: Linkety ?)
I have a iBook G4 laptop and there seems to be something very wrong with it. It started a few days ago just randomly. I was reading something on the internet and the screen went black on me, but the power was still on (I clicked CAPS LOCK to see if there was power). I then proceeded to push the power button and the power went off. When I pressed the power button again to turn it on, it made that internal noise it always makes and then the fan came on, and wouldn't turn off. There was no picture on the screen at all. Completely dead. But there was power, because when I clicked on the CAPS LOCK, the light came on). I tried pressing on the power button for at least 15 seconds and even went as long as a minute, and the power didn't go off.
View 3 Replies View RelatedMy iBook G4 power supply failed and I'm awaiting a replacement. In the mean time, can I use the power supply from my iBook G3 with the iBook G4?
View 1 Replies View RelatedLast Thursday I down loaded software updates from apple and have been losing power very quickly ever since. It just seems like as soon as I remove the power cord I lose power with in three minutes.
Info:
MacBook, iOS 5.0.1, purchased feb 2009
Can I use existing 85w magsafe adapter from existing macbook pro with new MBA 13 magsafe2 port ?
Info:
MacBook Air
I thought I'd write this brief how-to incase anybody else ever needed the information. I have bought 3 power cords/connectors/adaptors for my iBook in the last three years - crazy, right? I stepped on the tip of the first one by accident, and was unable to bend in back into shape. The second one (a third party version by MacAlley) spontaneously conked on me, the brick stopped worked. And more recently my third, another third party bought cheap off eBay because I was fed up of paying, developed a connection issue somewhere in the wire (it worked fine, then I had to fiddle with the wire to get it to work, then it stopped working). With all these broken connectors sitting around, I figured there must be a way to solder them together and avoid paying another 30$ on eBay and being without a laptop for 2 weeks.
STEP ONE:
Assemble all the broken adaptors you have, asses what works with what.
- I took the brick from the original which was working fine and the tip from the 2nd cord (the one where the brick stopped working)
STEP TWO:
Cut off the tip from both cords, make sure to leave plenty of wire attached to the brick and tip your using.
STEP THREE:
Strip the tips of both wires, there should be two sections; an outside section (wrapped around the inside section) and an inside section. In the original Apple adaptor, the outside section was braided around the inside (which was incased in rubber) along with a yellow insulator. In the second adaptor (MacAlley) the outside was twisted around the separate inside wire.
STEP FOUR:
Clearly seperate the two sections of wire from each, then twist them together. MAKE SURE THEY TWO SECTIONS (INSIDE VS. OUTSIDE) ARE NOT TOUCHING. You don't want to short-circuit your adaptor.
STEP FIVE (optional):
Solder the wires together
STEP SIX:
Tie a knot in the power chord before the connection, to avoid accidental stress on the joint, and cover it all with electrical tape.
So far, its been working fine. But be warned, THERE IS SOME RISK INVOLVED WITH THIS PROCEDURE. My battery is charging fine and the iBook is powered as usual. I'm just waiting for the battery to fully charge to make sure the power adaptor stops charging the battery when its full (don't want a cooked battery!)
My daughter has an iBook G4 which she loves and uses daily for school. When she turned it on today it would power up but no display. The CAP Lock key will light up. I have reset the PRAM and PMU but no luck.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI'm currently out of the country doing field research and just the other night, there was a power outage here and now my ibook won't start up. Of course, being in a "third world" country, I wasn't able to invest in a good power surage protector.
Is my computer dead for good?
I have a lot of work that needs to be done and my computer is essential here. Anyway, I can rescue my computer? I press the power button and it does absolutely nothing.
What do you people think might be the problem and how much am I looking at to fix this?
I have an 14" iBook, 1.07 GHz and it won't use battery power. As soon as I unplug it it turns off. It worked fine until I opened it up and swapped in a DVD-RW and a new hard drive (the old one was failing). In the power section of system profiler it shows 98 load cycles and about a 75% remaining capacity. It may or may not be charging - I can't tell. The battery says it's fully charged at 95% and I have no way to drain it and see if it will recharge because the computer won't drink from the battery. I had another 14" iBook battery laying around that I thought worked, but now when I put it in this computer it just sits at 0% then eventually says the battery is dead (the menu icon shows an X through it).
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have an old 14 inch ibook i use internet/mail my girlfriend recently damaged the power cable so cant get it to charge. Any suggestions as to where I might get a new one?
View 3 Replies View RelatedMy iBook G4 occasionally cuts out without warning when it's being powered by the battery.The battery still seems to have charge - it will light up all 4 charge lights when the button on the battery itself is pressed.It also boots back up straight away when the power on button is pressed after having cut out.This has never happened when the iBook is plugged in to the mains supply.
View 1 Replies View RelatedThis is a mystery to me. Long story but the gist of it is that I found if I hold down the power-button on my iBook while it's off it goes into some weird mode. i.e. fan spins, disc spins, sleep light flashes and a tone comes from the speakers.Is this some sort of hardware test mode? Is it going to blow up? Is it resetting something?
View 12 Replies View RelatedI have a g3 dual usb ibook that has a DVD/CD drive, 640 ram and a firewire port. I just bought a G4 800 mhz tower that has a gig of ram, but it does not have DVD drive (it's a cdrw only). My Ilife install disk is a DVD, is there anyway to use the DVD drive on my ibook to install software onto the G4 tower? Both devices have firewire but if possible I would like to use an ethernet cable connection between the two. I dont have the correct firewire cable(it's expensive).
A second question is i an os 10.3 on my ibook and 10.4 on my G4 tower. Is there a easy way to transfer all my files, settings, ect... from the ibook to the G4 tower? I don have the osx 10.4 install discs either (if that matters).
I have an ibook G4 (2years old, a part of the battery swap program) that charges normally... for about twenty minutes. Then the light around the charger turns from it's normal "i'm charging" orange to nothing, the light goes out and the ibook switches to battery power. I've just inspected the power chord and there are no strains or tears, the plug at both ends are in good condition and the ibook power socket is fine too.
I've turned the ibook off for a period of time (two days) and reset the power manager... still no difference. The ibook looks and acts just like it should until about twenty minutes into the charge then the light turns off and it's like it's been disconnected. The chord is in correctly, i've even tried the apple extension chord = no joy. If i reconnect the power chord at the wall it's fine, starts charging again... and yes i've tried different sockets on different circuits in the house!
well it does charge just not how it should. when i plug the ibook into the power adapter usually nothing happens. i have to jiggle the plug in just the right way to get it to charge and this involves putting pressure on it in some direction. it has gotten worse so now i have to have constant pressure on it for it to charge. i have tried 2 different chargers so i know its not that. i was thinking maybe the DC board but i was not sure.
View 3 Replies View RelatedThis is quite an interesting situation I'm in.
Today during High School, my first period, I noticed a Mac iBook G4 in the recycle pile used by my schools Tech department. I decided to swoop it up and give it a whirl, and see for myself what the problem with it was.
When I first powered it on, I was receiving a scrambled signal on my display. It was merely a white screen with lines in it, after a while of tinkering, even grabbing a few mac knowledgeable buddies of mine to see if they could do anything. It seemed like this would drag on, and I would not fix it.
In the end, we ended up tapping the screen and seeing a faint hope of light, that light was the appearance of the desktop! Unfortunately, the screen soon vanished back into it's scrambled state. Upon further tapping, we could only figure it was a problem with the connection of the display to the logic board.
My sister has just broken off the central pin to her iBook G4 which is now wedged inside the connector. Obviously the ac adapter is screwed and needs replacing but short of pulling out the offending pin from the inside of the connector, would I have to replace the power supply? How complicated is this? Cost? Any guides etc?
View 3 Replies View RelatedMy old 1.33 12" iBook needs a new drive. I need some advice regarding the power switch cord. This says the power cord is soldered to the board: [URL] I can leave the top case connected by the power switch cord if required. Perhaps I could tape the case down during work on the back side and rotate the connected case left during work on the front side. This is slightly beyond my skill level. Great advice found here during searches. I plan to be very slow, methodical, and conscious of screws/step.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have a 12' iBook G4 (1.33 ghz) that took a tumble and the power connector snapped off inside of it. I took it apart, popped out the broken bit from the dc-in board, and used it until the battery drained. It worked fine until then.I bought a new power cord, but it failed to charge the battery, and after searching through countless forums, I figured the problem was the dc-in board. I bought a replacement, and just installed it. Now, the battery indicator lights (the four green ones) are showing that it's charging up. It's on three right now. But the computer still won't power on. No fan noise, no other lights. I tried the PMU reset, but nothing. It's weird.
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